Church Season: The Day After

Ever had a party?  After all the guest leave there are dishes in the sink, the once-freshly-washed floors are suddenly again dirty, there are bits of food scattered around, trash to take out, and you try to return to ordinary of life.  Yet, something is different.  Hopefully it was a good party where laughter was absorbed into the walls of your home.  Hopefully with each dish you wash you remember the delicious food and friendships deepened.  Hopefully as you rewash the floors you know that the impression of your friends was left on your life.  It takes time after the party to appreciate how quickly the time went and beautiful that moment was.  Easter is a grand, great, holy celebration, but most of us don't live life in party after party.  We live (what I said previously) in-between.  In-between the holy and ordinary.  In-between the to-do-lists and the complete.  We live between what was promised on Easter and what will come when God's realm is fully established.  

The day after Easter is not only about cleaning up...it is about trying to live our life as though that empty tomb held more truth than we could every explore in a lifetime.  There were fifty days set aside between Easter and Pentecost.  Fifty day when we could let the events of holy week settle into our soul.  Yet, usually we pack up and leave after Easter.  Usually, we think not much happens.  But God is found in the ordinary.  God is discovered in the clean up.  God is there not only in joyful, but moments we are just trying to get food on the table for supper.

Easter was an amazing, life-changing moment.  And it takes intentional and prayerful time to process.  Easter takes time to bask in the light that poured forth from the empty tomb on Easter.  Easter is about noticing God's grace not only in moments of loud trumpet blasts, but also the quiet laughter of a family meal or coffee with friends or just a quiet night at home.  The day after Easter and the one after that and the one after that...this is where really the traces of God's grace start to make all the difference.   

I hope this stays with you...now, I have dishes from supper to tidy up.

Blessings ~